Onlinehttps://www.cmua.org/ Powered by: Forest Blog Copyright 2006 Host ForestGHGs Electric Vehicles and Equity: California Air Resources Board Chair sets priorities and vision for the next five years1After serving from 2015 to 2020 on the California Public Utilities Commission, Liane Randolph has moved to a new leadership role at the California Air Resources Board that is both familiar and distinctly different.

At the CPUC, Randolph burnished her reputation as a commissioner who was focused on issues centered around environmental justice and equity, and the advancement of clean energy. In succeeding Mary Nichols at CARB, she expects to work on similar issues — although progress might be measured in years and decades rather than days and months.

“At the CPUC, we were very concerned about ways that our role as regulators of the IOUs (investor-owned utilities) and their piece of the electricity sector supported our climate goals and made progress toward clean energy, so there’s definitely that overlap,” Randolph explained. “One of the things about CARB is that what we do has, in many instances, a pretty long time frame. Regulatory actions take a few years or planning that looks out many years in advance.”

With that longer lens, Randolph said she is focused on three priorities at CARB:
  • Building equity into what CARB does to ensure communities have a voice in CARB’s policymaking, in general, and in particular the AB 617 Community Air Protection Program that is bringing communities together to address the state’s air quality needs.
     
  • Building the regulatory framework of the governor’s Zero Emission Vehicle Executive Order, which requires California to get to 100% new sales of light-duty vehicles by 2035, heavy-duty vehicles by 2045 and off-road equipment by 2045.
     
  • Building out the AB 32 Scoping Plan Update, which sets forth California’s climate greenhouse gas targets and strategy for reaching those targets: 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2045.
Randolph said Gov. Gavin Newsom has tasked CARB with initiating a study that looks at the potential for moving more aggressively toward those GHG targets.

“The governor has asked us to look at achieving carbon neutrality even sooner, by 2035,” she noted.

These long-term priorities require collaboration and coordination. She said she gets together regularly—usually once a month—in a “principals meeting” with the CPUC president, Energy Commission chair and California Independent System Operator CEO to kick around ideas and make sure everybody knows what everybody else is doing.

“I really think that it’s an important responsibility for us to be working together, in the Newsom administration,” Randolph said. “The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development is playing the traffic cop in trying to bring us all together and make sure we’re continuing to have conversations, particularly around zero-emission vehicles and how we roll that out. I’m using my experience and my past relationships in my role at the PUC to ensure that we’re all thinking about these issues, talking about them and coming up with coordinated solutions.”

There is a lot to plan for and think about. Is California’s grid prepared for more electrification of the economy? Is the state ready for the transition away from fossil fuels? How can California minimize its use of emergency standby generators to preserve air quality? How do we build a system that is resilient and affordable in the face of climate change?

Those are long-range challenges, but Randolph said CARB also is taking short-term actions to improve air quality. She noted steps that should get results include a new rule that sets up a smog check system for heavy-duty trucks and a ban on agricultural burning in the San Joaquin Valley that takes effect in 2023.

No matter the policy, Randolph wants CARB to redouble its commitment to considering equity-related issues and the impact regulations have on the most disadvantaged communities in California.

Within CARB’s Advanced Clean Cars No. 2 rulemaking for light-duty vehicles—which will set the path to reaching the ZEV executive order’s goals—one of the key topics is the equity strategies California could deploy.

“What can we require of the automakers in terms of those strategies?” Randolph asked. “We’ve had conversations with communities and a public workshop on that topic. We’re building that into the rulemaking from the very start so that when it comes to the board it will have had that component built into it. That’s the way we’re trying to operationalize it in everything we do.”]]>https://www.cmua.org/default.asp?Display=11https://www.cmua.org/default.asp?Display=11admin1120220311115431CMUA Endorses COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Principles for Our Water Future0https://www.cmua.org/default.asp?Display=10https://www.cmua.org/default.asp?Display=10admin1020200408162500ACWA and CMUA-Sponsored Bill Advances Trust to Fund Safe Drinking Water0

News Release


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Feb. 22, 2019

Contact: Matt Williams, CMUA, |(916) 326-5805 | C (916) 841-4054; Heather Engel, ACWA, | (916) 441-4545 | C (760) 217-0627

SACRAMENTO – A bill introduced Friday, February 22, in the California Legislature would establish a Safe Drinking Water Trust as a long-term funding solution to help community water systems in disadvantaged communities provide their customers with access to safe drinking water.

Senate Bill 669 is authored by Sen. Anna M. Caballero (D-Salinas) and sponsored by the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) and the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA). The bill would create the Safe Drinking Water Trust in the State Treasury and would be funded with general fund dollars during a state budget surplus year, such as the current budget year. Net income earned from the trust would be transferred to a Safe Drinking Water Fund, which the State Water Resources Control Board would administer.

This approach would provide a durable funding source for costs associated with operation and maintenance of water treatment facilities, as well as efforts to consolidate smaller water systems that are out of compliance with drinking water standards with districts that have the necessary technical, managerial and financial capacity to provide safe drinking water. Funds from the trust would complement existing federal and state funding sources for the capital costs of building treatment facilities.

“While most Californians have access to safe drinking water, certain disadvantaged communities do not, and we strongly agree with Gov. Gavin Newsom that this is a critical public health issue that the state must address,” said Cindy Tuck, ACWA Deputy Executive Director for Government Relations. “The record budget surplus for the 2019-’20 fiscal year makes this the perfect time to create and fund a Safe Drinking Water Trust and ensure access to safe drinking water for residents of these disadvantaged communities. The Trust is a better approach than a statewide water tax.”

SB 669 presents an alternative to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to establish a statewide tax on drinking water. A water tax would work against keeping water affordable and would be highly inefficient with approximately 3,000 local water agencies becoming tax collectors for the state. The resulting combined local administrative costs would exceed the combined state tax revenue collected from the local water bills.

“SB 669 proposes an efficient, effective and long-term funding approach that would not increase the cost of living for all Californians,” said Danielle Blacet, CMUA Director for Water. “We can solve this issue without a tax.”]]>https://www.cmua.org/default.asp?Display=9https://www.cmua.org/default.asp?Display=9admin920190225111306A Perspective from the Road -- Public Power in California1Written by Patrick Welch, November 5, 2018

I've had the opportunity and pleasure to leave my desk behind in Sacramento and visit with many of our electric members. What's emerged is a portrait of converging features that contribute to, and shape, CMUA members' ability to provide affordable, reliable and sustainable power.

 ]]>https://www.cmua.org/default.asp?Display=7https://www.cmua.org/default.asp?Display=7admin720181105142917